Comments on the Parisian restaurant digests

[John Whiting]

Those are the "yellow" pages and not the "young" ones, are they not. 

Au contraire, I use the very latest edition!

[Felice]

Yup, Bux is right, I walked by last night and indeed it sits on the corner of the two streets.

[John Whiting]

Yup, Bux is right, I walked by last night and indeed it sits on the corner of the two streets.

And the photo in the Paris Yellow Pages has this caption:

Ce bâtiment a plusieurs façades :

1 rue de l'Eperon

41 rue Saint-Andre Des Arts

Mystery solved.

[pierre45]

I don't know whether people realize that the digest is really an excellent source

for new restaurants .as a result i have stopped reading the local papers.

on another topic ,i am not surprised that la bamboche is closing.I always thought that their so called creative food was a me too,with no special merit and not even

reasonable.

[paga]

I agree entirely with Pierre 45. Talbott is the only source to which I refer.

[John Talbott]

Thanks to everyone for the kind comments on the Digest and reviews.

Pierre: Please don't stop reading the dailies; I'd hate to be even partly responsible for fewer sales, plus I don't want a manif in front of my place. Besides, holding the newspaper in front of you is so much more fun than looking at a screen.

Paga and John Whiting: I don't want it to appear that I do all this stuff alone or am an autodidact. While I'm not as fortunate as the New York Times' reviewers who reportedly have a half-dozen staff who act as "pre-testers" and Figaroscope's Emmanuel Rubin and François Simon, who have at least four folks sharing their byline for the compendia each week, I have a pal who established the methodology of seeking out good, new restaurants and who does much of their vetting for me (e.g., 4 of the 5 mentioned in Five New/Changed Restaurants.) This guy, let's call him Steve, because he's too modest and bashful to put his thoughts on eGullet himself, starts by carefully combing through every yearly guide and daily and weekly newspaper that mentions restaurants; then as a natural-born flaneur, goes to all the promising looking ones and with tape recorder as well as pen and pencil, notes their posted cartes and menus; and finally "auditions," e.g. eats at, the most interesting ones. At this point he passes on the "best of" these to a select bunch, among which I count myself. So in a sense I am merely the Charlie McCarthy to his Edgar Bergen or Oracle of Dephi to the Gods.

Bux: Just thanks.

[John Whiting]

So in a sense I am merely the Charlie McCarthy to his Edgar Bergen or Oracle of Dephi to the Gods. 

Or Minotaur to his Labyrinth?

[fresh_a]

The week of October 11, 2004

Gayot.com has listed DeVèz, 5, pl de l’Alma in the 8th, 01.53.67.97.53 as “New and Notable.”  It serves Aubrac beef 12 ways (shades of Le Duc….) from tapas to rotissed.

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Shame on Gayot (whose site I hate anyway..) Devez is not "new" at all. It's been open for ages!

[tighe]

Couldn't the same be said of much of their current "New & Notable" list? At least 4 of them were open when I was in Paris over a year ago.

Pinxo

L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon

Le Murano

DeVèz

Le Pavillon des Princes

Maison Rouge

Delizie D'Uggiano

Kayser

Ze Kitchen Galerie

Flora

[fresh_a]

Wednesday, Figaroscope’s “C’est nouveau” gave three hearts to La Cuisine, the restaurant A Nous Paris reviewed so favorably last week, saying the chef brings exciting new ideas (e.g. langoustines with thyme, rabbit stuffed with veal sweetbreads) to it; they also gave 2 hearts each to:

... and

Le Petit Champenois, 6, rue Fourcade in the 15th, 01.48.28.67.93, also closed Saturday lunch and Sundays, with formulas at 14.50 E at lunch, and 17E; à la carte = 25 E, serving cassoulets, parmentiers and other “terrien” {untranslatable} dishes.

Interesting thing about "La Cuisine" in the Figaroscope, which got three hearts , but also two hearts for the "Petit Champenoix", owned by the same person. Figaroscope's credibility seems a little shaky in this respect..

Edited November 29, 2004 by Bux (log)

[fresh_a]

In the Figaro, I enjoyed the Yves Cambdeborde interview

[Poppy Quince]

John, in the year-end digest you mention "La Table de Lucullus’s fate post-Nicolas Vagnon’s departure from the 17th." What's that about? Do you know why he's leaving and where he's going?

[John Talbott]

John, in  the year-end digest you mention "La Table de Lucullus ’s fate post-Nicolas Vagnon’s departure from the 17th."  What's that about?  Do you know why he's leaving and where he's going?

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I was surprised myself to read it. I have no idea; the comment was very brief and I have not been by it to see if there's anything in the window.

[fresh_a]

It's true. He's apparently tired of Paris and going elsewhere. It's been in the works for awhile, and has been mentionned elsewhere..

[raisab]

I just made a reservation for Wednesday night.....I specifically asked if he was the chef, the lady who answered said yes. Does anyone truly know if he is gone? If he is, I will cancel my reservation. Merci pour votre response.

[Poppy Quince]

I just made a reservation for Wednesday night.....I specifically asked if he was the chef, the lady who answered said yes. Does anyone truly know if he is gone? If he is, I will cancel my reservation. Merci pour votre response.

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Raisa, Clothilde at chocolateand zucchini.com (who's a friend of Vagnon) says the following:

>>Nicolas will open a new restaurant in L'Ile d'Yeu, an island off the Atlantic coast. Last I heard, he was going to make the transition in the spring<<

[fresh_a]

Clothilde answered that in response to my hearing of a rumor somewhere. On paper, Nicolas no longer owns the restaurant. Whether he's staying on a bit longer for whatever reason is up to debate. But according to public record, the restaurant has already changed hands for a few months now...

[corinne]

I just read about Pasco in Bonjour Paris. Any experience, anyone?

corinne

[John Whiting]

Adrian Leeds of ParlerParis suggests that Paris’s “biggest restaurant bargain” is the several years old Le Domaine de Lintillac, 10, rue Saint Augustin in the 2nd, 01.40.20.96.27 where you can start with a Kir, have three courses of fine Périgourdine cuisine (foie gras, confit de canard, etc.), their best wine and coffee for about 20 Euros. {For first-timers, be aware that it’s heavy in meats, thus some women find its fare very “Zone unfriendly.”}

I just don't understand why this place continues to be recommended on any grounds other than cheapness and the appearance of terroir-devotion. click

[John Talbott]

Adrian Leeds of ParlerParis suggests that Paris’s “biggest restaurant bargain” is the several years old Le Domaine de Lintillac, 10, rue Saint Augustin in the 2nd, 01.40.20.96.27 where you can start with a Kir, have three courses of fine Périgourdine cuisine (foie gras, confit de canard, etc.), their best wine and coffee for about 20 Euros. {For first-timers, be aware that it’s heavy in meats, thus some women find its fare very “Zone unfriendly.”}

I just don't understand why this place continues to be recommended on any grounds other than cheapness and the appearance of terroir-devotion. click

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As is obvious from my {comments} I ate there and while finding it fat & meat heavy did not think it was disgraceful, indeed I've kept its handout menu thinking I might go back. If I lived around the corner, a chilly night, I might just.

[John Whiting]

As is obvious from my {comments} I ate there and while finding it fat & meat heavy did not think it was disgraceful, indeed I've kept its handout menu thinking I might go back.  If I lived around the corner, a chilly night, I might just.

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John, my apologies. I didn't realize that the {comments} were your own. Perhaps I hit a bad night; but a bad night it certainly was.

[Felice]

John, in the last digest you wrote:

" the team from De la Garde is moving to Beauvilliers in the 18th"

Do you know if the Chef has left yet? Would you go?

[John Talbott]

John, in the last digest you wrote: " the team from De la Garde is moving to Beauvilliers in the 18th" Do you know if the Chef has left yet?  Would you go?

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Answers: No, Don't know.

Explanation: I wasn't a huge fan of either, despite the spectacular flowers at Beauvilliers and its closeness to home, so I think I'll wait and see what the big boys think (eg Simon, Demorand, Rubin, Berger) before springing for it.

[fresh_a]

lso, Adrian Leeds, in her newsletter ParlerParis, wrote a review of Marie Edith,

Adrian Leeds is a woman??!!?

[fresh_a]

Surprised there are no comments about this